MORE Taunton students are setting their sights on Oxbridge universities.

Ten pupils from Richard Huish College could be off to the top universities after receiving offers to Oxford or Cambridge.

An equal split have received the offers for the elite universities with five hoping to get into Oxford and five hoping to get into Cambridge.

The students who have their sights set on Oxford include: Kitty Debieux who has been offered a degree in English language and literature at Exeter College, Rhiannon Petteford who has an offer to study history and Czech with Slovak at The Queen’s College, Albie Smith who has an offer for chemistry at St Anne’s, Abby Pridden who has an offer for law at Corpus Christi and Izzie Farrance who has an offer to study medicine at Trinity College.

Receiving offers from Cambridge are: Misha Medvedev who has been awarded a place to do chemical engineering at Trinity College, Pascal Lasnier who has an offer to do engineering at St Catharine’s College, Ben Grischeff who has an offer for human, social and political science at Homerton, Freddie Lindsey-Coombs who has an offer for history at Gonville and Caius and finally Emma Canavan who hopes to study law at Clare College.

Recently the college hosted the Oxbridge Parents’ Evening where a selection of the lower sixth and some of the most gifted Year 11s from partner schools were invited.

Huish assistant principal, Colin Barnard, introduced the evening of talks aimed at those considering a future at Oxford or Cambridge.

Oxford graduate and current Huish student liaison officer, Liam Edwards shared his experience as a student and Izzy Sanders, a Cambridge University representative from Trinity Hall, detailed the extensive admission process candidates go through.

Richard Jones, progression and learning centre manager at Huish shared information about the careers programme and the advice and support available for those wishing to make a competitive application.

He said: “An application to Oxford or Cambridge University requires dedication to academic studies and a commitment to a significant amount time spent on Academic Enrichment.

"This Enrichment is open to students as soon as they have they decide to join Huish and is aimed at supporting students to develop skills in analysis, reasoning, independent research, evaluation, logic and problem solving.

"This includes expert advice on interview skills and early application deadlines, the opportunity to complete an Extended Project Qualification, participate in trips to both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and take part in specific medical preparation classes.

"This added support from day one certainly helps our students make a competitive application.”